1. Regarding no. 58 of the Instrumentum laboris, the Holy Scriptures teach that God has written His law upon every human heart. The divine natural law, inscribed upon the human heart, can be discovered by reason but is clearly announced to all through the inspired Word of God (cf. Rom 2:15).

2. In the context of pervasive materialism, relativism and radical individualism, it is especially urgent that the Scriptural teaching on the natural moral law be presented as the common heritage of every man.

3. Also urgently needed is the proclamation of the divinely inspired teaching on the discipline which disposes man to do what is good and to avoid what is evil. Holy Scripture teaches us that the observance of the law is not the height of man's self-expression, but it is the irreplaceable foundation of the highest expressions of human goodness.

4. Proclaiming the Scriptural teaching on the place of discipline in the lives of individuals and of society is a challenge in a culture which is either antinomian or has made law a tool in the hands of the most powerful.

5. Regarding the relationship of the Word of God and law, it is important to underline the service of canon law in the Church, by which the life of Christ can grow and develop in the whole Church. In his Apostolic Constitution Sacrae disciplinae leges, Pope John Paul II, describing the service of Canon Law in the Church, referred to "that long heritage of law, which is contained in the books of the Old and New Testament and from which the whole juridical and legislative tradition of the Church takes its origin, as from its first source."

6. In the Church, as in society, the understanding of the law has been obscured and, in some cases, lost, leading to gravely harmful effects, for example, the widespread disregard of liturgical laws and the failure to follow the procedural laws by which the faithful vindicate their rights and ecclesiastical delicts are duly sanctioned.

7. The deeper appreciation of the service of law in the Church, through the study of the Word of God, not only helps the Church to understand and treasure the gift of its canonical discipline for the attainment of its divine mission, but also assists society, in general, to understand and treasure the irreplaceable service of law for the attainment of the common good.

Can. 827 §1. To be published, catechisms and other writings pertaining to catechetical instruction or their translations require the approval of the local ordinary, without prejudice to the prescript of ⇒ can. 775, §2.

§2. Books which regard questions pertaining to sacred scripture, theology, canon law, ecclesiastical history, and religious or moral disciplines cannot be used as texts on which instruction is based in elementary, middle, or higher schools unless they have been published with the approval of competent ecclesiastical authority or have been approved by it subsequently.

§3. It is recommended that books dealing with the matters mentioned in §2, although not used as texts in instruction, as well as writings which especially concern religion or good morals are submitted to the judgment of the local ordinary.

§4. Books or other writings dealing with questions of religion or morals cannot be exhibited, sold, or distributed in churches or oratories unless they have been published with the permission of competent ecclesiastical authority or approved by it subsequently.

And wishing, as is just, to impose a restraint, in this matter, also on printers, who now without restraint, - thinking, that is, that whatsoever they please is allowed them, - print, without the license of ecclesiastical superiors, the said books of sacred Scripture, and the notes and comments upon them of all persons indifferently, with the press ofttimes unnamed, often even fictitious, and what is more grievous still, without the author's name; and also keep for indiscriminate sale books of this kind printed elsewhere; (this Synod) ordains and decrees, that, henceforth, the sacred Scripture, and especially the said old and vulgate edition, be printed in the most correct manner possible; and that it shall not be lawful for any one to print, or cause to be printed, any books whatever, on sacred matters, without the name of the author; nor to sell them in future, or even to keep them, unless they shall have been first examined, and approved of, by the Ordinary; under pain of the anathema and fine imposed in a canon of the last Council of Lateran: and, if they be Regulars, besides this examination and approval, they shall be bound to obtain a license also from their own superiors, who shall have examined the books according to the form of their own statutes. As to those who lend, or circulate them in manuscript, without their having been first examined, and approved of, they shall be subjected to the same penalties as printers: and they who shall have them in their possession or shall read them, shall, unless they discover the authors, be themselves regarded as the authors. And the said approbation of books of this kind shall be given in writing; and for this end it shall appear authentically at the beginning of the book, whether the book be written, or printed; and all this, that is, both the approbation and the examination, shall be done gratis, that so what ought to be approved, may be approved, and what ought to be condemned, may be condemned.